Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about include aging, predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury.
In this case, microwave radiation that would fry one's brain.
Death – particularly the death of humans – has commonly been considered a sad or unpleasant occasion, due to the affection for the being that has died and the termination of social and familial bonds with the deceased. Other concerns include fear of death, necrophobia, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression, sympathy, compassion, solitude, or saudade.
Then again, what is it like for someone to experience death? Many cultures and religions have the idea of an afterlife, and also hold the idea of reward or judgment and punishment for past sin, but while this might be true, what exactly would happen to those that got their brains fried by the Nerve Gear through in-game death? Where would they go? And how would it feel?
Obviously, no one would be able stay alive and tell the tale, but one could only guess that Lily and Milly were going to find out soon enough.
Would it be painful? Would somebody miss them? What have they done in life? And why the hell did they even buy the Nerve Gear that put them in this death game in the first place? …Would they have a happier end had they chose otherwise?
Questions upon questions ran through their minds as memories of their lives flashed before their eyes.
This was it; this was the day they die.
With eyes wide-open, they watched in slow motion as the Soul of Cinder moved to strike his last attack as their waited for the cold and dark embrace of death.
In a split of a second, they closed their eyes as darkness consumed their vision.
The Soul of Cinders put everything into his attack and struck true to its target; fire, dust and smoke filled the air as the attack made impact.
Silence filled the air and the smoke began to dissipate. The Soul of Cinders stood victorious, however—
"heh… you're gonna have to fry hotter than that."
The twins heard the familiar voice and realized that they weren't dead. Opening their eyes, they saw the source of the darkness that consumed their vision.
A wall of bones stood tall as Sans stood defensively between them and the dark fiery knight with a raised arm, saving them for what was supposed to be their death; déjà vu.
"W-what is…?"
Confusion plagued their minds; they couldn't believe what just happened; they couldn't comprehend what just happened. What are those bones, they ask to themselves. How and what just happened?
Then, the Soul of Cinders suddenly jumped backward as Sans waved his arm, dodging the wall of bones that moved and was about to ram into the fiery knight before glitching out of existence as its target was now out of range. Without looking back, he asked, "are you two okay?"
There wasn't any answer; both of them were too scared and confused to say anything else. Sans frowned and felt his guilt crawling on his backbone, feeling ashamed of himself.
[heh… how dare i… how dare i even hesitate to save those that would sacrifice themselves to save me?]
That was it. It was too late now since they have seen it. He didn't want to use this power due to its numerous unknown risks, but if using it meant that he could save his friends… then he wouldn't have it any other way.
The Soul of Cinders took a stance as Sans stood up and thought out loud, "heh… not like i'm expecting any answers anyway."
The fiery dark-knight took his sword and stabbed it right into the ground, burning everything in his close vicinity in eerie green flames. Out of this scorched floor, multiple monsters began to spawn and crawl out of the ground; Undead Skeleton Warriors.
Pulling his sword out of the ground, the Soul of Cinders took a stance as his undead minions gathered and got ready to attack.
Outnumbered ten to one, not including the boss himself, things were not looking very good. Lily and Milly couldn't think of anything anymore. They were too scared and too confused to do anything that they simple sat there, hugging each other with their eyes still full of disbelief in what was happening.
Sans knew that things were looking bad. Not only did he got himself outnumbered, if Lily and Milly can't do anything, then that would mean he had to fight for his life as he fight to protect theirs too.
With such an overwhelming odds at hand, Sans chuckled darkly at the thought that this might be his karma catching up to him for hiding his powers out of fear and paranoia for so long.
[huh… 'Sans' stood idle by even when the Protagonist was killing all of his friends one by one… well, i am not making the same mistake he did.]
Sans took a deep breath; eyes still closed.
"lily. milly. i'm sorry for taking so long, but now you can both sit back and relax…"
Smiling wider and darker than usual, Sans opened his eyes and his left eye burnt brightly.
"…Cuz' I have a bone to pick with this guy."
And just like that, the skeletons shouted a war cry and ran towards Sans as he walked closer towards them. The skeletons managed to get close to him and lunged forward to slash, stab and behead Sans, however, as if time was slowing down, Sans could see their movement in utmost detail.
His usually enhanced senses were multiplied by a few folds and he could see clearer, feel stronger, and hear louder than he ever had. The flow of air around him, the temperature of the room, the intensity of the light coming from the eerie green flames, the killer instincts of these monsters, the vibrations of footsteps.
In front of him was a skeleton trying to stab into his chest, however, faster than it could even touch him, Sans had managed to sidestep the attack gracefully, causing the skeleton to miss its target and stab at one of its fellow monster who was right behind where was Sans was.
Other attacks were coming horizontally from behind him and with his enhanced senses, he didn't even need to look back to see where they would attack. As quick as he dodged the first attack, he dodged the simultaneous attacks and rolled to the right and distanced himself a little bit.
Then, with his eyes flashed, tens of bones glitched into existence and flew toward the monsters. Like hot-knife through butter, the bones rained down upon the group of skeletons like arrows and as dust and fog fill the air as their bodies exploded into pixels.
Watching that his minions are easily killed off one by one, the Soul of Cinders decided to lunge at him and swing his sword.
Sans, of course, dodged that too and instead used the opportunity to trap the boss as bones shot out of the ground where the Soul of Cinders landed and pierced through his armor.
A loud hissing noise echoed within the room as the Soul of Cinders struggled and back-flipped away to safety, but not without realizing that one of his HP bar was tinted purple as it was decreasing really fast at an accelerated rate.
The two then took a moment to breath and plan their next attack, Sans was assessing his situation as the Boss did the same.
Sans got ready when the Soul of Cinders readied himself and swung his sword in a fiery swish, lunging forward for the kill.
Sans knew this pattern, the boss would swing his sword once, then initiate a combo—
Sans barely dodged it. Instead of the pattern he predicted, the boss tried to stab Sans once before spinning around horizontally as the tip of the sword burned brightly.
Through sheer luck and reflex, Sans dodged the attack, then rolled away to safety. Frowning in confusion he asked himself, [bosses and normal monsters are no different in RPGs. they have a set of moves and patterns that you can analyze before you exploit it. but why does it feel like his attacks suddenly… 'changed'?]
Swinging his sword once more, green eerie fire covered the fiery knight's sword before suddenly turning into a staff-like sword.
It was then he widened his eyes as the realization hits, [his weapon… changed?!]
Dark ball of shadow floated around the fiery knight as Sans was trying to figure out what he was doing, it was then he realized where the Soul of Cinder was aiming at.
"Lily! Milly!"
Rushing toward the twins just in time, he summoned three layers of walls of bones, then the boss shot his dark beam of energy. Gritting his teeth, Sans sweat was pouring out of his body as he struggled to withstand the beam.
After what felt like hours of being rammed by a moving truck, Sans' knees almost gave out as the mental strain weighted heavily on his mind; he had never used his powers to this extent before.
Not even a moment to regain his breath, the fiery knight summoned a few other balls of shadows before shooting them toward Sans as if they were Undyne's energy spears.
[so you change your weapons to gain advantage on every situation, huh?] Sans smirked, [i got you now.]
Sans ran forward as he dodged the incoming dark energy spears and used some of his own bones to protect himself from the incoming projectiles.
As predicted, the boss swung his sword and transformed the previously staff-like sword into a curved one. The Soul of Cinders also ran forward to vertically strike Sans, but he was ready and jumped out of the way, using his telekinesis to temporarily root the boss to the ground before summoning bones out of the ground to hurt his opponent.
However, Sans could only make a few hits, since the boss broke free out of Sans' telekinetic grip and immediately back-flipped away to safety. The Soul of Cinders extended an arm and a fire burned brightly on his hand, then he was about to fuse this fire into his chest.
Sans didn't know what the monster in front of him was doing, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let it finish whatever it is it was doing.
[oh no you don't!]
Sans shot his bones forward and one of them struck the boss' hand, causing him to stagger. Sans saw the opportunity and moved forward for the kill. Rooting the fiery menace into the ground, he summoned bones from above, below and around him.
With his entire HP slowly being covered in purple tint, the Soul of Cinders desperately hugged himself tighter, but then as Sans sensed a sudden spike of energy, he moved out of the way as the fiery boss exploded in a dark shadowy light.
Standing him once again, the boss stabbed his sword into the ground and scorched the land below him. Undead Skeleton Warriors rose from the ground as Sans snorted smugly, the boss was getting desperate.
However, his smug smile faded when he realized that they weren't going after him, they were trying to kill the paralyzed twins.
Sans ran toward the two girls and tried to protect them as best as he could, but then—
"Sans look out!"
—the Soul of Cinders charged forward to stab his opponent with a spear attack.
Sans closed his eyes to brace for impact. For a moment he thought that he was dead, but opening his eyes slowly, he realized that he was saved by none other than Milly who pushed him away to safety.
They quickly stood back up. Sans prepared his bones as they were surrounded by a dozen of Undead Skeleton Warriors as Lily readied her own dagger.
"i told you to let me handle it, didn't i?"
"We were supposed to be your babysitter. We can't afford to sit down here all the time being scared and confused if we want to live, can we?"
"…heh, touché."
A few skeletons tried to sneak attack them, but failed as Milly used her combo to cut them into pieces.
"Thanks, sister!"
"Sans!" Milly tried to gain his attention. "You'd better explain to us about who and what you are later or else we will definitely kill you if we get out of this alive!"
Sans looked back into their eyes and saw that they were serious. However, despite their seriousness, there were warm smiles on their faces. Sans held back a laugh, "heh. fair enough."
Shouting a battle cry, the twin assassins gracefully killed the skeletons one by one as Sans used his bones to protect and kill the skeletons that was trying to hurt them.
Filled with determination, they gave it their all to defeat the quickly-spawning skeletons, but it was no use.
"There is no end to these things!" Milly shouted in frustration.
Killing one of the skeletons, Lily replied, "Sans, leave the minions to us! Defeat the boss!"
Staring at them in surprise, he never thought that there would come a day where they both would finally trust him. He guessed this was the day; he'd better not let them down.
"understood."
He smiled and ran toward the fiery knight that was kneeling and ringing a bell as bright magical circle appeared below him. However, being too late to stop him, the magic circle shone and the boss regained one of his HP bars again.
In quick succession, the Soul of Cinders stood up and also ran toward Sans with a curved sword in hand. The distance between them was closing and it was then Sans swung his arm as a wall of bones appeared and blocked the boss' first attack in time.
Swinging his arm again, Sans used his telekinesis to push the boss back and summoned sharp bones at where the boss was going to land. The attacks hit, but again, the boss back-flipped away and were left with one and a half HP bars left.
Not giving the boss any time to recover, Sans summoned a few more bones and shot them forward toward him. The Soul of Cinders didn't have enough time to dodge and found himself struck by tens of bones imbued with karmic retribution effect.
The fiery dark-knight realized that all of his HP bar was tinted purple and was decreasing quickly and in desperation, he changed his curved sword into a staff and summoned a few balls of shadow.
Sans, recognized the attack and summoned a few layers of wall of bones.
"lily! milly! get behind me!"
Then the beam was shot and Sans tried his very best to maintain his wall of bones despite the incredible mental strain that he was feeling. However, it was end.
"Sans, go!"
As the beam dissipated, Sans shot one last bone toward the Soul of Cinders and being caught off-guard, the attack managed to pierce through his chest, damaging the last of his HP.
Staggering for a few moments, the fiery knight fell forward in a kneeling position as he dropped his sword. All of the Undead Skeleton Warriors suddenly breathed their last breath as they exploded into pixels.
"W-We did it!"
Sans narrowed his eyes and kept his eyes on the boss, but then—
"ACK! ARRGH!"
He suddenly knelt in pain and clutched his head.
"S-Sans! Are you okay?!" the twins rushed toward the boy.
Sans tried to endure the excruciating headache that he was suffering from and gritted his teeth.
"…y-yet…"
"What…?"
"he isn't dead yet!"
Widening their eyes, they felt a sudden burst of energy coming from right behind them. Eerie green flames erupted from the fallen boss as he slowly rose from where he fell.
Wielding his sword, the knight body and weapon burned brighter than ever. Another burst of fire erupted, temporarily blinding their vision, and they widened their eyes in disbelief.
Lv. 50 [Lord of Cinders]
Silence fell within the room, but then Milly's eyes widened in fear and disbelief as she shouted in frustration, "HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE?!"
Lily didn't fare better seeing that she was shaking a little from being shocked, "Just how many times must we kill him until he's dead?!"
Milly then gasped when she realized something, "Lily, look! He only have one HP bar!"
"Judging from our attacks before, I think we can use our combos to kill him in one go!"
Sans who heard what they said widened his eyes, [no… don't tell me…] He was about to tell them not to go through with whatever it is they were planning, but the pain came back and he clutched his head harder.
"Let's end this, Sis!" Milly exclaimed before running towards the boss hadn't moved.
"Let's go, Sister!" Lily replied and followed suit.
Sans noticed that the previously Soul of Cinders lifting his sword and holding back his pain he said, "y-you idiots, get out of the way!"
Heeding Sans warning just in time, the twins managed to dodge the knight's burning sword which suddenly extended as he continuously swung his sword over and over again before suddenly plunging the sword deep into the floor, causing everything around him to explode and burn in eerie green flames.
While they weren't hit by the boss' sword attack, the explosion's force pushed them back so hard that their body flew toward the wall of the room with their health points entering the red zone.
[l-lily! mill—ACK!]
Sans tried to stand up to help, but the pain still didn't go away; it only grew stronger and more painful as the seconds passed.
[damn it! what is this pain?! why is it so hard for me to try and save the people i care about when i have this powers!]
The Lord of Cinders walked forward slowly as he lifted one of his hand as if trying to grab something, then a lightning bolt suddenly crackled into being on his hand and he threw it toward the ceiling.
Lily and Milly managed to recover and used the potions. They watched carefully at the lightning bolt that the boss threw and they widened their eyes when their realized that the bolt split up into tens of other tiny bolts and was about to rain down upon them.
With their agility and sharp reflexes, Milly grabbed Sans and barely dodged the attack, however Lily didn't make it in time. A shout echoed in the room as Lily got struck by one of the tiny lightning bolts and although small, the damage it dealt was enough to decrease her recently replenished HP back into the yellow zone.
Milly narrowed her eyes and in anger rushed toward the boss, "You bastard! I'm going to kill you!"
Sans widened his eyes in shock at Milly's poor sense of judgment, "milly, no—!" But he was too late.
"Agh!" The Lord of Cinders managed to grab her neck with one of his hand and lifted her body off the ground. "L-Let… me… go…!"
Sans tried to force himself to move through his hellish pain. [i have to save them…]
Milly realized that the boss' hand was glowing and she widened her eyes in despair when she realized what was going to happen next. Fire erupted from his hand and exploded right into her face and neck, causing her body to fly and landed rather hard toward the floor.
[i have to save them.]
"M-MILLY!" Lily rushed at her side and saw that Milly's health bar was on critical.
She tried to use her potion, but Lily widened her eyes in pure despair when she realized... they were out of health potions.
A flash of bright green flame from behind her caught her attention and she saw the Lord of Cinders lifting his sword again.
[i have to save them!]
Lily realized that there was no time to dodge and it was going to be the end for them. As time seemed to slow down, she hugged her sister defensively as she prepared to sacrifice herself for her.
Then, the Lord of Cinders, swung his flaming sword.
NOOOOOOOO!]
Sans' eye flashed so bright that the Lord of Cinders staggered, blinded from the light. Sans teleported right between them and used his telekinesis to lift the Lord of Cinders off the ground.
Without a pause, he continued to slam the the boss down to the ground over and over before summoning bones from the ground, impaling his armor from all sides, locking him in place.
Then as Sans' eye flashed one more time, he snapped his finger as four giant gaster blasters glitched into being; all pointed toward the boss of the room.
As if knowing that he was about to die, the Lord of Cinders attempted to struggle through the bones that bound him in place, but it was a futile effort.
The gaster blasters opened their mouth and charged their attacks as the boss merely tried to struggle more in desperation. However—
With an incredibly disturbing smile, Sans muttered out, "get dunked on."
—It was the end.
The blasters shot their beams and after a few seconds, the Lord of Cinders was no more.
A pregnant silence filled the room.
There was no 'Congratulations' or music that played after Sans beat the boss; there was absolutely nothing, but the long and peaceful silence.
The twins who were watching the whole thing were left speechless. They had mixed emotions. They were glad to still be alive, they were relieved that they were still okay, however out of all the other emotions, one of the emotions that stood out the most… was fear.
For Sans to be able to kill the boss effortlessly using his last attack… they could only imagine if he was pointing the same attack at them and they'd have no way to run.
However, it wasn't only fear that was on their minds, it was about Sans expression. The way he smiled before he killed the boss… it was an expression that they had never imagined Sans to possess; it disturbed them.
Silence still filled the air, but then Sans collapsed once more and let out an agonizing scream of pain that broke the silence and caught their attention.
"S-Sans—?!"
Before they arrived at his side, Sans suddenly coughed out blood as his body fell to the ground. They turned his body around and gasped in shock. Sans' left eye was extremely red and a few tear of blood was coming out of the corner of his eyes, earholes, and nose.
Sans was sweating, coughing, gagging, twitching and hyperventilating uncontrollably in such a pain so excruciating he couldn't even scream anymore.
Pain was the only thing that filled Sans mind. He couldn't think, he couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, and all he could think about was the agony that he was going through. It felt like as if his brain was slowly melting.
The twins didn't know what to do and they panicked. However as Sans was losing grip from his consciousness, he managed to croaked out his last words, "do… dont…"
"W-What is it, Sans? What do we do?!"
Using every ounce of strength he had left, he said, "Don't… tell… anyone." And with that the darkness consumed the world around him.
Darkness, it was all there is around him.
There was no sound, no voice.
There was a long and peaceful silence within this void.
However,he noticed that things around him began to... change.
Dark, darker, yet darker…
The darkness keeps growing,
The shadows cutting deeper,
And light's slowly fading.
[Where am I?]
[What happened to me?]
He looked around his surroundings,
But only there's only darkness as far as eyes could see.
He realized then,
He was growing weaker.
His mind felt heavy,
Consciousness was slowly leaving him.
Fear began to grow within him,
He feared that he would never wake up if he fell asleep.
He grew worried and so he started to struggle.
Forcing himself to stay awake, he—
"oh, get a grip, kid. you're not gonna die."
[W… what was that?]
"nothin' really. i'm just an spooky voice within your head."
[N-not that! I mean, who said that?]
"heh, funny that you're asking of all people cuz'…"
[What… what do you… mean…?]
He turned around and with his mouth agape, he widened his eyes at who he saw.
"hi. i'm sans. sans the skeleton."
Author's Note:
Hello! It's been a while, but hey! I'm not dead! Things are getting a little hard in real life so I had to posrphone on continuing my stories.
Don't worry, though, I'm not gonna abandon it any time soon so there's that.
Anyway, fyi, this is the first time for me to write a chapter via fanfic dot net's mobile app so I hope I'm not butchering the story too much, lol.
Welp, there'll be explainations ahead about why he has the powers so look forward to it! Tell me what you think about this chapter and thanks for reading!
See ya next chapt, Capt!
:v /